Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry. 1921.
Still Was the EveningVictor Hofman (18821911)
S
The summer ball, with dancers wending
Where ancient linden shadows fall
Upon the river steeply bending;
And willows droop like drowsy dreamers;
Where it seemed beautiful to wreathe
The lanterns and the colored streamers.
A waltz that singing hardly sounded;
And many faces, many meetings,
Soft clouds like women’s shoulders rounded.
Serenely the whole heaven holding,—
A fluent and enchanted dream
Of joyous miracles unfolding.
Upon the clouds the sun was flinging;
The dream-swept waltz was drowned in light,
And calling through the dusk and singing.
And many meetings, many faces,
And near cheeks’ warmth, and lovely quiver
Where eyelash with curved eyelash laces.